After reading this section it became clear to me that in the end, it was racism that ultimately was the cause of the unfortunate death of Tom Robinson. Any modern sane jury would have declared Tom innocent and Bob Ewell would have been put on trial for child abuse. The fact that the jury was full of racist men who were taught to believe a white man over a colored man no matter what gave Tom a very little chance of surviving. If you go back even further, no one would have made such a big deal about the whole situation if it wasn’t illegal for a white woman to love a colored man. Tom didn’t rape or hurt any of the Ewells, but since he wasn’t white he was easy to be blamed for the beating of Mayella. Tom lost the trial and when he went to jail he decided to run, likely because he realised that the society at the time was just too racist for him to stand a chance, even though he never committed any crimes. He decided to run, seeing that it was the only way he could get out of the jail and be free. The guards would not have shot him so much or at all if he was a white man, further cementing the fact that it wasn’t bullets, but it was racism that killed Tom Robinson (metaphorically speaking. It was actually, in fact, the bullets that killed him but I’m trying to make a point here).
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3 Responses to “Racism killed Tom Robinson (21-25)”
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Nice post. It just comes to show that racisms is bad and it kills people. I disagree with you about if he was white they would not have shot him. I believe if he was white he still would have gotten shot, but maybe not to death. A prisoner is a prisoner after all. If the jury was fair this would not have happened. This just to show the cause and effect taking place. It is wrong that he is blamed for such things; he showed that he is innocent, yet the jury is so cruel and prejudice. He wanted to be free and he took that chance and ran. This shows how alike Atticus and Tom are. They do what’s right to them and take a chance to make a difference in someone’s life. If Tom could have lived he could have taught everyone something about life and how racist people made him spend his life in jail.
I agree with your stance on this topic. Although Atticus had all the proper evidence and supporting statements for Tom Robinson’s side of the case, racism got the best of him. This case was not at all about a man raping a woman, it was a black man against a white man. During this time period in history, the white man would win 9 times out of 10 9. I believe that if Tom Robinson was not black, this case would not have been as big to the public as it was. If he was white, not only would this case be smaller, but Tom Robinson probably would of won. If I was in his position, I would have done the same thing he did. I would have attempted to escape jail and be free, because I know I would never be a free man again. I agree about how you said the bullets did not actually kill him. His life was actually dead (over) as soon as he was convicted.
Very good post, I agree with most of the points that you made. Tom Robinson would have obviously lived through the trial if he had not gone up against a racist jury. Tom did not r*pe or hurt any of the Ewells like you said, but he was an easy target to take the blame for it, just because he is black. Mr. Ewell needed to blame Tom Robinson for r*pe, since he would not accept the fact that his daughter liked a black man. However, in this section I did notice that the town of Maycomb might actually have some hope for becoming a less racist town. If you noticed, the jury actually stayed in session for much longer than expected. I think this shows that the jury actually had to weigh some of the facts, instead of simply charging Tom because he is black. Maybe Maycomb has a little bit of hope that we didn’t see coming.
~ Daniel Verkamp